Through the Mirror Pool
by Emerald Force
Summary: While exploring the Everfree Forest one morning, the Cutie Mark Crusaders stumble upon a pack of timberwolves. After barely escaping with her life by falling into the mirror pool, Sweetie Belle finds herself learning more than she is comfortable knowing about the nature of existence.
1. An Adventure Gone Wrong

"Hurry!" Scootaloo panted at Applebloom, racing ever deeper through the Everfree Forest. Continuing to fall behind, the red maned little Earth pony just couldn't keep up. Sweetie Belle, though slightly ahead of Scootaloo, was much too out of breath to speak. Gritting her teeth and ignoring the growing cramp in her side, she galloped onward.

The three had ventured into the Everfree Forest earlier that day in hopes of earning cutie marks as explorers. Their adventure had taken a turn for the worst when they stumbled upon a pack of timberwolves. It was for this reason that they galloped frantically for their lives.

A thousand thoughts flew through Sweetie Belle's mind as she pressed onward. "What is this? I'm going deeper into the forest. If the timberwolves don't get me, something else surely will."

"NO!" Sweetie Belle screamed the word mentally, and perhaps physically as well. Like a small blast, it blew away all negative thoughts, allowing her to concentrate. The woods grew thicker and thicker and in the dim light, she could barely make out the branches, trees, and stones in time to avoid them. Her body had become numb to fatigue, and her mind had become numb to fear. There was no future or past. She existed for only one purpose - to gallop as fast as she could.

Perhaps it was minutes. Perhaps it a few hours. At some point, Sweetie Belle's hooves no longer hit the wet ground, and she found herself falling and falling.

"WHACK!" The filly unicorn's body hit a floor of cold stone, jolting her awake from the trance-like state she had sunk into while running. For a second, she remained frozen, before screaming from the combination of terror and pain that coursed through her. Her body ached from the tremendous physical exertion, and her mind, traumatized by her close brush with death, continued to see the glowing yellow eyes of timberwolves everywhere. Sometimes, she thought she was still with Applebloom and Scootaloo laughing and exploring. Sometimes, she thought she was still galloping frantically. Sometimes, it seemed like she was doing both simultaneously. The darkness of her surroundings and resulting sensory deprivation only served to enhance the vivid hallucinations her shaking mind conjured up.

She lay there, motionless, for an hour. She was in the same position she landed in when she fell. At some point, she had stopped screaming, and slowly, her breathing returned to normal. She had to turn her mind away from the day's events. Groaning, she pulled herself up to a sitting position before shakily performing a breathing exercise Twilight had taught her a few weeks earlier. She had to relax; to force her mind to stop thinking. Every brief memory of the morning that flashed through her mind threatened to send her once more into a panic.

Luckily, her past few months of magical training with Twilight had strengthened her willpower and sharpened her concentration considerably. With some effort, she managed to bring her emotions and thoughts to a steady rhythm. Taking one last deep breath, she looked around.

She was completely alone. She was in complete darkness too, but that was no problem for any unicorn who had passed magic kindergarten. A dim point of light appeared at the end of Sweetie Belle's horn, slowly growing brighter. Moments later, the filly could see that she stood in the midst of a large cavern.

"Well," she thought to herself, "No sense remaining here." Slowly and cautiously, she began moving forward, making her way around the various passages.

With the first sound of dripping water, Sweetie Belle jumped in surprise, shutting off the light on her horn. She did not want the light attracting predators. Breathing heavily, she shuffled over to the wall, using it to guide her steps forward. Straining her ears for any sign of trouble, she made her way along the wall, continuing in this silent fashion, feeling ahead for any turns or obstacles.

"SPLASH!" In the choking darkness, the lost filly had stumbled into a lake, or maybe a river. Upon recovering from the shock of the cold water, Sweetie Belle opened her mouth to scream, but in an incredible act of self control, forced herself to stay quiet. Splashing as little as possible, she tried to make her way back to land.

Something wasn't quite right, however. As she tried to move her hoofs, she found she could no longer locate them. Her entire body seemed to be dissolving. Before, the thought could register, she found her mind dissolving as well, or rather, expanding. Sweetie Belle began to sink into a strange trance. She was one individual, then five, then ten, then a thousand. A moment later, she felt she was an infinite number of individuals simultaneously, each speaking every word and performing every action possible. Her mind, or rather, all of them, expanded to infinite, and she found her consciousness filling up a boundless region of space. She was simultaneous at the center, and at the edges, though there were no edges in the conventional sense of the word. Although higher level students at Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns frequently worked with strange states of consciousness like this, the young filly's mind was utterly unprepared for the experience of infinite formless awareness. It remained but for a moment, before blacking out.


	2. Scarlet Thunder

Sweetie Belle awakened to the faint sound of running water. Opening her eyes, she found herself situated by a stream in a forest clearing. Stretching herself and pulling herself up, she admired the scenery around her before realizing she had no idea where she was. Confused, she tried to think back to see how she had gotten there.

Immediately, a deep sense of discomfort came across her and she focused on the present moment again. Had something horrible happened to her? Realizing she had to get to the bottom of this, she gently eased her mind into the past.

Slowly, the events leading up to the present began to come forward in her memory. Briefly, an image of a timberwolf flashed through her mind accompanied by a tinge of fear and nausea. Gradually, as her mind cleared, she was able to piece together her recent past, leading up to falling into some body of water. When she tried to think about that, her head began to hurt, and a thick wall of blackness enveloped her mind, like it was too much. The next thing she knew, she was laying there by a river. Being a unicorn, however, she was well aware that magic was present all throughout Equestria; often in unexpected places so these events were not exactly mindblowing. Still, she knew she had to make her way back home. Especially now that it had occurred to her that Scootaloo and Applebloom may not have been as lucky as she had been while running from the Timberwolves.

She began to follow the river downstream, hoping to find civilization. Twilight had actually taught her that during their latest Twilight Time.

It was a beautiful day. Celestia's sun shone brightly in the sky, surrounded a handful of bright pearly clouds. Had Sweetie not been worried about her friends or her location, no doubt she would have been in a great mood. As she trotted along, she heard a rustle in the bushes to her left. Pausing, she turned around and looked in the direction of the noise's source. For a moment, all was still. Listening closely, she heard nothing but the whisper of the stream next to her.

A flash of red streaked toward her. Before her mind had time to register anything, she found herself flung on the ground with another young filly the same age as her pinning her down. "WHAAA" Sweetie Belle managed to get out before the newcomer climbed off her, laughing.

"That would have been an ippon for me," she said "Your center of balance was way too high."

Sweetie Belle looked at the other pony with interest. Her fur was a deep red color, and her mane was black, though it had several blue jagged streaks running down its length. She seemed to be a pegasus, though like no pegasus she had ever seen before. Instead of feathered wings, her's were black, and shaped like those of a bat.

"Are you new to these parts?" her assailant asked her.

"Uhhh, probably" replied Sweetie Belle, "Are you from around here?"

"Pffft, yeah but you're definitely not from around here if you're asking that," said the pegasus. "My name's Scarlet Thunder. I wander around here a lot; especially on weekends. It's fun, but also kind of lonely. Do you live nearby?"

"I don't know," said Sweetie Belle back, "I live in Ponyville, however far away that is from here. Oh, and I'm Sweetie Belle by the way."

Scarlet Thunder only blinked. "Where?" she asked.

"Ponyville," repeated Sweetie Belle. "It's a small town, so you might not have heard of it. It's between Canterlot and Las Pegasus. I'm trying to find my way back." Her heart fell as the thought of her hometown reminded her of how she came to be so far away from it in the first place.

Still, Scarlet Thunder continued to look confused. "Hmmm, no, I haven't heard of any of those places either, but then again, geography isn't really my thing."

"Huh?" said Sweetie Belle, "Sure, you must at least have heard of Canterlot, out capital city."

Scarlet Thunder continued to stare at the unicorn dumbly, as if trying to decide whether or not she was joking. Sweetie Belle, for her part, also wondered whether Scarlet Thunder was just messing with her. Las Pegasus was a pretty well known city, but surely, she had to have at least heard of Canterlot. If she could only learn the direction of Canterlot, she would also know the direction of Ponyville, which was nearby.

"Well, I don't know," replied the pegasus after some thought, "In any case, have you moved here to Scar?"

"I… I don't think so… I mean no," said Sweetie Belle… "We were… we were chasing… I mean we were being chased…"

Sweetie Belle broke down crying. She couldn't take it anymore. She was lost, confused, and had possibly lost her two best friends. "We were being chased by timberwolves and got separated," she said, sobbing "Then, I don't know, I'm here somehow."

Scarlet Thunder only looked at her, unsure what to say. Suddenly, a sickening mechanical roar filled the air around them.


	3. An Opening of the Eyes

"I knew it," whispered Scarlet Thunder. "I knew it," she repeated, a little more forcefully this time. Now she too looked like she was about to cry. For the past minute, the two young fillies had watched as a group of machines or vehicles of some sort, blazing with green magic, had sliced down tree after tree, clearing an area in the forest that grew larger and larger with each passing moment. Each was purple, with the exception of a green logo on the side. They moved on caterpillar treads. In a way, they looked like tanks, though instead of a cannon, each was mounted with a large electric saw.

"They removed the Matherian woods on the other side of town last spring," continued the pegasus. "All that's left there is an old oak tree that was too bent to be of much use. I knew they'd come for these woods. Oh, I don't know what I'm going to do. I've played here since forever. Oh…"

Another tree swayed gently before crashing down onto the forest floor.

"Well, why are they doing this?" asked Sweetie Belle cautiously, afraid to sound naive.

"Because they're monsters," snapped Scarlet Thunder. "All they want to do is urbanize and industrialize. 'The planet is ours to use,'" they say, "So therefore, we are free to abuse it and have our way with it."

Having cut down that tree, the sickening machine moved on caterpillar tracks to the next one, a scrawny looking pine. Without thinking, Sweetie Belles horn lit up with a pale green light. Suddenly, the tree's soft bark transformed into a coat of crystalline scales. As the machine began cutting it down, the blade snapped upon touching the trunk. A loud crack rang throughout the forest. Immediately, the unicorn's horn ceased to glow and the tree's bark reverted to its former natural state. The two fillies held their breath, unsure what would happen.

A tan furred unicorn climbed out of the machine to investigate. Looking at the broken blade with a puzzled expression on his face, he muttered something to himself before trotting off.

"Wow, that was so cool," whispered Scarlet Thunder. She opened her mouth to continue speaking, but quickly shut it when one of the workers happened to turn his head in their direction. The were far enough away that they would not be heard.

"I wish I could do magic," continued the pegasus, "But we all have our own unique abilities I guess, the three races. Flying is fun, but it's not much use when my father is harassed by his superiors in the ministry, or I see the Department of the Interior systematically removing the beautiful forests. They don't see it. They just don't see it. They don't see the beauty of nature. The planet was given to the government to use, and its resources, including its citizen ponies are for His majesty King Metagus and his nobles to use and abuse as they will. It all makes sense, of course, but it's painful to watch."

Sweetie Belle was silent for a moment. "Hmmmm, have you tried writing to Celestia?" she asked at last.

"Who?" asked Scarlet Thunder.

"Princess Celestia, of course," replied Sweetie Belle, "The ruler of Equestria. Surely, if things are too bad around here, she would do something about it.'

Scarlet Thunder's face took on the same confused expression it took earlier. "King Metagus" rules this country," she said. "I've never heard of Equestria, but if it has a ruler that would care for such things, then it must be very fortunate."

Sweetie Belle blinked, "Wha… Oh, I'm not in… er… oh, yeah, sure," she said. The news that she was no longer in Equestria took her by surprise. If not, where could she be? Saddle Arabia maybe, but the forest suggested otherwise. Glancing down at a bush nearby, she noticed the topmost leaves were covered in a thin layer of soot.

The tan furred unicorn returned now to his machine carrying a new blade. Installing it, he climbed into the machine. His horn glowed green, as did the machine, and it began to stir. Scarlet Thunder looked at Sweetie Belle, to see what she would do. Sweetie Belle, for her part, felt compelled to do something, as she had already done once. Thinking back, she recalled a trick Twilight had taught her to turn a bird into an orange. If she modified, then maybe…

Sweetie Belle's horn glowed it's signature pale green color, as did the blade upon which she focused her magic. The unicorn driving the machine, however, noticed this time and his eyes grew open in surprise.

The blade turned into a snake and began to slither away. Before Sweetie Belle had fully completed the transformation, however, a wave of power flowed from the unicorn driver's horn onto the blade, mingling with the magical aura of Sweetie Belle which surrounded it. Immediately, he traced the magic back to its source with his mind and turned his head in the direction of the two fillies. Without a word, the both turned and galloped away at full speed.


	4. Things Get Worse

Scarlet Thunder took a few steps before spreading her wings and flying off. Before going too far, however, she realized she was about to abandon her new friend and quickly turned around, landed beside Sweetie Belle, and galloped alongside her. Though she was used to flying when traveling quickly or long distance, the star athlete of her school was much more fit than Sweetie Belle, and had no trouble keeping up.

A feeling of nausea spread through Sweetie Belle as she was reminded of her earlier frantic sprint from the timberwolves. This time, she did not have the all pervading terror that had previously spurred her on, and when a growing cramp in her left side became unbearable, she was forced to stop. As she did, Scarlet Thunder stopped too, pausing to look around. Unlike Sweetie Belle who was panting, the pegasus was hardly out of breath.

The young pegasus looked around and strained her ears, listening for any possible pursuers, trying to tune out Sweetie Belle's heavy breathing while doing so. Deciding they were safe, she waited patiently for Sweetie Belle to recover before the two began walking along.

The trees became less dense, signalling the edge of the forest was not too far off. The angle of the suns rays through the overhead leaves told the two it was early afternoon.

"So, what brings you 'round these parts?" asked Scarlet Thunder, now very curious about this new filly.

Sweetie Belle sighed, reminded once again of the terrifying events of the morning, as well as the fact that she was lost in a strange land with no idea how to return to Ponyville. Still, she realized she needed to let somepony know if she was going to find any help.

"We were…" she began, before stopping, unsure where exactly to begin her tale. She had planned to explain her morning from the very beginning, including the fun hours she had spent with Scootaloo and Applebloom before deciding that it was not really relevant. "I was exploring a cave near my home when I fell into a stream, or lake, or something. I don't know what it was, but I became unconscious somehow and found myself here." Her voice shook a bit with nervousness as she finished speaking.

"Well, that's certainly…" Scarlet Thunder began speaking but stopped abruptly and squinted her eyes, peering into the distance. Sweetie Belle looked too, wondering what foul creatures might dwell in this forest.

A tall figure was making it's way toward them. As she got closer, Sweetie Belle noticed she was a tall elderly pegasus with dark tan fur. Her wings, too, were bat shaped, unlike the feathered ones she was used to seeing.

"Mrs. Flora … is that you?" called Scarlet Thunder.

Upon hearing her name, the newcomer looked up. "Scarlet" she called back, "You have to leave. Your parents…" The old mare collapsed in a fit of coughing. Her voice reminded Sweetie Belle of Granny Smith's.

"Mrs. Flora!" The filly pegasus called before rushing over, "Are you alright? What's the matter? Why are you here?"

Mrs. Flora took a deep wheezy breath. "You need to leave," she said, " You parents were taken away by the shadow guard around noon. They're waiting for you to return. Luckily, they don't think too much of an old mare like me." The effort of saying even this caused her to begin coughing again.

"Ugh, this smog!" Despite her weak physique, she still managed to spit out the words with spite. "Wherever you go, make sure it's somewhere clean. You're no longer safe here. I would hide you in my house, but that would not work for very long. You must go."

As Mrs. Flora slowly choked out these words, stopping every half sentence to catch her breath, Scarlet Thunder's face had begun to grow pale.

"Why?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Well what else do you think?" asked Mrs. Flora, "Treason of course. That's what it always is isn't it? Chances are you won't find out more than that, and may the alicorns, wherever they may be, help you if you try. I had best be going now before they really do suspect me of anything." Upon saying this, she slowly turned around and made her way back.

Fear was an emotion that was fairly new to Scarlet Thunder. She had always been a brash young athlete ready to take on the world, or rather, the part of the world that wasn't part of the nobility.

"That's...that's what they always say," exclaimed the pegasus.

"What?" asked Sweetie Belle cautiously, realizing that something terrible had happened but unsure exactly what.

"Treason...It's always treason. My parents were very loyal patriots. How could they have been arrested. I'm going to the nearest royal citadel and protesting." As Scarlet Thunder spoke, the color slowly began to return to her face as she was energized by her anger and frustration. Pausing a moment, her shoulders slumped and her face grew pale again.

"No, no, that won't do," she continued, exasperated, "They'd just take me. They take whoever they want. I knew it. There's something horrible about these nobles." She stopped, seemingly shocked at what she had just said.

"Uh, so, what are you going to do now?" asked Sweetie Belle, unsure how else to reply. This was turning out ot be quite an eventful day.

"I don't know...what am I going to do? WHAT AM I GOING TO DO? WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?" Scarlet Thunder was close to shouting at this point. "If they find me, they'll think I'm a traitor. If they find you, they'll think you're a spy. Why did my parents, do what they did, whatever that might be? Oh, why did you have to land here of all places? Didn't you have any choice. You're a unicorn, you can do magic."

"Oh, I don't know," said Sweetie Belle, lost in thought now, "Magic is just as mysterious to us as it is to you pegasi and Earth ponies. We know not how it works. Some of us like Star Swirl or Celestia have become quite adept at using it, but even they are no closer to understanding it than any other pony. One day, somepony might teleport across the road. Another day, another pony fall into a portal of some sort and end up here."

"Teleportation, well that would solve all our problems!" exclaimed Scarlet Thunder.

"I don't think so," replied Sweetie Belle, "Most unicorns can only do it for short distances, which I assume won't be enough to get us anywhere safe. Regardless, I do suppose our first step is to find a plan of some sort, or at least have a purpose. What do you think?"

"Stay alive…?" suggested Scarlet Thunder.


	5. The Unwilling Medium

"Ugh … Wha… What's going on?" muttered Sweetie Belle, gaining consciousness.

"SWEETIE BELLE! SWEETIE BELLE!"

At the sound of Scarlet Thunder's voice screaming her name, her mind attempted to enter panic mode before failing due to a lack of energy. Though Sweetie Belle had just woken up, she felt exhausted and drenched in a cold sweat, made worse by a light breeze of night air. The two friends had spent the last three days trotting through the forest, with no particular destination in mind. They only knew the further they were from civilization, the safer they were for now.

Along the way, Scarlet Thunder and Sweetie Belle had talked and talked, telling each other all about their lives and the worlds from which they came. Out of sight and earshot from anypony else, Scarlet Thunder had done most of the talking, unleashing as much profanity as her filly mind knew in describing every aspect of what she now realized was a rotten society. Clearly, she had been previously been forced to repress such thoughts, let alone speak them. Now, the more she spoke and thought, the more rotten it all seemed. Sweetie Belle, on the other hand, refrained from describing in too much detail the delights of Equestria, fearing that an incredulous Scarlet Thunder would believe her to be mad or lying.

"SWEETIE BELLE! Oh, Sweetie Belle. Are you alright? Are you alright?"

Sweetie Belle opened her eyes and found Scarlet Thunder leaning over her, frightened tears glistening in her eyes.

"Huh, what's wrong? What happened?" asked Sweetie Belle, once again thoroughly confused.

"Do… Do you remember any of it?" asked Scarlet Thunder, trying to bring herself under control. She seemed on the verge of collapsing into hysterics.

"Remember any of what?" asked Sweetie Belle, in a perfectly innocent voice.

"I heard a strange humming noise so I woke up. When I did, you… you were just floating in the air. Your eyes glowed this emerald green color and you began speaking, but it wasn't your voice. It was some other older mare's speaking. I wanted to run, but I couldn't move."

Sweetie Belle thought to herself. Her mind felt weak, as if she had just finished an arithmetic exam, only ten times worse. "Well, in that case, what was I saying?" she asked at last. It seemed to be the obvious question.

"Oh," said Scarlet Thunder, thinking back. "Well, something about establishing justice, or something along those lines. At some point, you told me to be a knight, whatever that means. You also told me to go to Morfur, though you never said why…"

"Morfur?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Yeah, did you just come from there or something?" replied the pegasus.

"No, I don't even know where that is," replied Sweetie Belle. The situation was getting to be too strange for her to think about. Getting up, she dragged herself to a nearby spring to quench her thirst. As she drank, she began to feel lightheaded. Suddenly, visions flashed before her eyes - images of lush forests, frolicking animals, fillies playing in the wilderness, a pear tree sapling growing in a chalice carved from an emerald, a stone palace, and a beautiful green alicorn lit up her mind in a mere fraction of a second.

The intensity of the visions overwhelmed her, and she slumped face first into the spring before pulling her head out of it a moment later, choking and turning around to find Scarlet Thunder still looking at her worriedly.

"Sorry," Sweetie Belle said, "Just a little tired from all that walking earlier." She debated a moment whether to tell Scarlet Thunder about this recent experience before deciding to wait until she could make enough sense of it to speak about it."

"Where are we going? We can't wander around like this forever," stated the pegasus, more to herself than Sweetie Belle, "Did that really all happen?"

"Did what really happen?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Whatever you were doing. Are you sure you don't remember? You seemed possessed or something. Yes, that must have been it, but how? Some entity wants us to go to Morfur?"

"I don't know anything," replied Sweetie Belle, "Where even is Morfur? Can you think of any reason to go?"

"It's just some town along the coast," said Scarlet Thunder, "Though I don't know why we would go there since it's not any safer than Scar. Hmmm… You know more about magic than I do. When you unicorns go into a trance like that or become possessed or whatever, what do you do with the information you say?"

"I've never had that happen to me before," said Sweetie Belle, "I don't know…" It was all she could manage at the moment. She had no recollection of this possession incident of which Scarlet Thunder spoke, though she had no doubt it had occurred. She was equally at a loss to explain it. "Is there anything else you remember about what I said?" she continued.

Scarlet Thunder shook her head. "No, I don't think so. It sounded like you were just saying in a fancy way to go to Morfur, and to stay strong while travelling. It will all work out in the end, or so you said. You used a lot of big words too. Well, we might be travelling toward captivity, torture, and death, but at least we're going somewhere." She slumped backwards and lay on the soft grass again. "Who knows?" she said, "It could have been a message from the light, or the shadows. Only time will tell."

"And just how are we going to get there?" asked Sweetie Belle. Scarlet Thunder had grown up in an oppressive world, where the arrest of somepony she knew was a monthly occurrence. Where she lived, if a pony came home to find his wife had vanished, he was expected to refrain from mourning or enquiring about her, lest he too drop from the lives of those who knew him. It was a world where many people envied those taken from them, knowing that their troubles had been put to an end at last.

Sweetie Belle had certainly not grown up in such a world, and the thought that she might be travelling to her death was completely unfamiliar to her. In Equestria, everything was organized, and everypony (or so it seemed compared to this world) was kind and friendly. Now, though the whole world seemed to be against her, she knew she could not hide in the forest forever.

The filly unicorn, seeing that Scarlet Thunder had dropped back into a deep sleep, reclined as well, though she spent a considerable time tossing and turning around, as well as worrying that she might once again find herself an unwilling medium to the same entity or another. She tried again and again to force the thought from her mind. "If it happens again, so what?" she thought to herself. At last, the thought crossed her mind that if Rarity were in her position, she wouldn't last a second. Smiling, she closed her eyes and slept.


	6. Out of the Forest

Sweetie Belle and Scarlet Thunder sat peering downward from a high hill, whose grass, green under their feet, seemed to get progressively sicker and more yellow as it sloped down to the pavement below. The had fled into the forest nearly a week and a half ago, wandering around relatively aimlessly and chatting idley. Now, looking down into the crowded parking lot of a P-Mart, they realized they had at last reached civilization again.

"Well, what now?" asked Sweetie Belle, mostly to break the uncertain silence between the two.

"You're really asking me?" replied Scarlet Thunder, "You're the brains here!" She was somewhat bewildered. Where there was society, there was the autocratic government, and where there was the autocratic government, there was the reminder that she probably wasn't supposed to be alive right now.

"Well, you know this world a lot better than I do," said Sweetie Belle. She sighed. "I suppose we really can't stay in the forest forever."

"Well, why not?" asked the pegaus, "It wouldn't be that bad." Suddenly her eyes narrowed. "No, wait, you're right," she continued, "I have to find out what happened to my parents. I'm tired of remaining scared. Let's do something meaningful, or be apprehended while trying. The world seems to be pointless anyway. At least now with a goal, we'll have some sort of direction."

"And when we reach that goal?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"We won't," replied Scarlet Thunder matter of factly, "No one can oppose the nobility for long. But supposing we did, we would find another purpose in life, and then another and another until it's all over."

Sweetie Belle decided to ignore her friends pessimistic outlook for the time being, and thought back to her long hours training in magic. Knowledge, Courage, Volition, and Silence, Twilight explained, were the four pillars of magical power. All unicorns who wished to master the arcane arts to any significant degree must possess these four qualities. Without them, the simple levitation and telekinesis that constituted the extent of most unicorn's abilities were all one could manage. By developing the four pillars, the unicorn learned to master herself, and with mastery over the inner self came mastery over the outer world and the forces of nature. Now, if there was one pillar that seemed to be tested, it was Courage.

"Yeah, let's go find out," said the unicorn at last, beginning to walk down the hill. Scarlet Thunder hesitated briefly, unsure, before following behind.

"Stop looking around like that," whispered Scarlet Thunder as they walked through the parking lot, "You look really suspicious. Hey, where are we even going?"

"No clue," said Sweetie Belle, "We'll figure something out eventually. Do you think the sight of two fillies like us walking around without a parent will attract attention?" As she said this, she continued looking around worriedly, unable to help herself.

"Of course it will," said Scarlet Thunder, in a more hushed tone. "Ugh, we really should have thought this through. Hey, look around the carriages and see if anypony left a purse or something we could steal."

The two of them had brainstormed possible ways of reaching Morfur during the past week. One was simply to hire cabs or ride buses their. It was unlikely to work, because undoubtedly they would be questioned as to why two little fillies were travelling alone.

"Hey, look at that carriage," said Scarlet Thunder.

Sweetie Belle looked. It was a simple looking bronze carriage. In the backseat were several suitcases. "What about it?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"That colt's clearly going somewhere," said Scarlet Thunder, walking over to the carriage, "We should ride along with him."

"Oh, and just how do you plan on getting that to happen?" asked Sweetie Belle. "Oh hi mister colt," she said sarcastically, "I was just wondering if you would help us flee the government and go to Morfur under the instructions of some random entity that possessed me?"

"Watch," said Scarlet thunder, climbing into the trunk of the back of the carriage, "Let's just hope none of the guards monitoring the security cameras out here are paying attention. But then again, I can't imagine they would be. Sounds like an awful job to me." She arranged the suitcases into a little cave and climbed inside. From most angles, she couldn't' be seen. "Come on," she said.

Sweetie Belle, unsure how this was all going to work out, cautiously climbed in and joined her friend in the midst of the suitcases. "Well, I suppose we'll have to spend the foreseeable future as quiet as possible," she said.

Scarlet Thunder groaned. "Ugh, well that'll be a challenge for me. You know how I am. I don't know if I can manage it."

"Sleep," said Sweetie Belle, "It's not like we can do anything else. Or if not, it'll at least strengthen your pillar of Silence." The sky outside was gloomy. The world was gloomy. Ignoring Scarlet Thunder's confused question about her enigmatic comment, she found relief escaping off to dreamland.


End file.
